Engaging Event Volunteers – Part Two: During Your Event

The big day is finally here, and your months of hard work are about to pay off! All of the tickets are sold out and the house is packed, but… you still have an awesome event to produce. In Part Two of this 3-part series, we’ll be discussing the best ways to engage and activate your event volunteers during your event. If you missed Part One, you can check that out here.

1. Make Lists

In the weeks leading up to your event, make a list of every possible place you could use a volunteer. Think about your event from start to finish, and each place you’ll need help. Obvious roles to start with are check in, help with setup/teardown, security, etc. but don’t stop there! Are you selling tickets at the door? Do you have name tags or badges to be handed out? Are there food and drinks being served?

2. Assign Team Leads

Bucket tasks you need help with into groups and assign especially responsible volunteers to be the team lead for that group. For example, if you have 4 doors that each require a security person, assign one volunteer to each door and then create a ‘Security’ lead, who can train the other volunteers and be their point of contact for any questions that arise during the event. Remember, there’s only one of you, and try as you might you can’t be everywhere at the same time! By creating team leads, you’ll cut down on the amount of people tracking you down with questions during the event itself.

Cut down on volunteer no-shows by clearly communicating each volunteer’s role at the event far in advance. By empowering your volunteers and making them feel like they’re vital to the success of your event, volunteers will be less likely to flake. Be honest, if you just thought you’d be standing around an event for a few hours and you had something better come up — you’d bail, right? But, if you know you were responsible for checking in guests, you’d be more compelled to stay true to your word and show up!

Stay tuned for Part Three, where we’ll go over best practices to keep your volunteers engaged post-event, and as always, feel free to share your best practices below in the comments!